Citizens will decide whether to pay price to add new amenities to city

By Lindsey Williams

community@couriernews.com

CLARKSVILLE - The city council here voted at its meeting Monday to conduct an election Nov. 8 that would decide whether to enact a sales tax to equip the city with its own aquatic center.

Alderman Freeman Wish said the aquatic center is something the council has been working toward for a while.

"It's something we've been working on for years now," Wish said. "The community said they've wanted it and it's come up as top picks for what the community needs.

"The current pool that we are using, I'm thinking now it was built and open somewhere around '55, so it's pretty much had it's life and we are in drastic need of a new one. A lot of people in the community have had interest in it, from senior citizens down to children's groups."

The aquatic center, if approved, will be connected to the Marvin L. Vinson Multi-Purpose Building and will cost the city $10 million to build, something for which Wish said the city doesn't have the funds.

"The city doesn't have the money to go in and build, and the only way to do that is to have a sales tax increase," he said.

Mayor Billy Helms said he and the council will ask voters to approve a 1-cent city sales tax increase at the election to fund not only the aquatic center, but a new police and fire station as well.

"We have three officers to a little cubicle - not even a room," Helms said. "If the tax passes, a new fire station might make our ISO (Insurance Services Office) rating - the insurance rating for personal property taxes - it would probably make the insurance go down on those particular things and if it did, the savings the homeowners would enjoy, it would probably make up for the 1-cent city sales tax they would spend in a year's time."

If the increase is passed, sales tax assessed within the city will rise to a total of 9 percent.

Wish said the cost for all three projects - the aquatic center and new police and fire stations - will be roughly $17 million.

"A quarter of the 1 cent is for maintenance and operations," he said. "The aquatic center would get half of that quarter and the police and fire stations would each get a quarter. The remaining three-quarters of the 1 cent is for retirement of the bond."

Wish said voters will have four questions to decide at the polls, the first being the quarter-cent sales tax, which funds the maintenance and operations of the projects.

"That tax has to pass before they will do on any of the others," he said.

If the tax passes, Wish said voters will then be asked in three separate questions if they want the city to build the aquatic center, police station or fire station. Voters have the opportunity to say yes to just one of the structures, to two of the buildings or to all three projects.

"There's a chance you could build one of them, none of them or all three of them," he said.

Recreation and Parks Supervisor Tom Cogan said if the tax were to pass, the aquatic center would come with many amenities.

"Inside, will be an eight-lane, 25-meter Olympic-sized pool with a low dive and a warm water therapy pool," he said. "Then we will do an outside water park with a toddler area, vortex pool, diving board, slides, bowl slide and a lazy river.

"On the indoor pool we will have a retractable roof so in the summertime and with nice weather, we can open it up and let the air flow through," he continued. "There are three different places in the state that have built these pools. Paragould has one, Bryant has an indoor pool and Heber Springs has one, too."

Cogan said if voters pass the tax for the pool, he hopes for the center to be ready to open by May 2013.

"We've been working on this, starting six years ago," Cogan said. "I'm excited that we've finally gotten to the point where we will get to vote yes or no after all the time we've spent."